Basically I agree with what you have to say. Although most (all ?) replies call you a liberal, muslimbuddy etc.., there is nothing wrong with thinking about the reasons for this terrible act. That doesn't mean you justify them, or that you have to have been in Desert Storm to express your opinion about what those reasons might be.
These terrorists are extremists, you can find them anywhere, near abortion clinics, in Northern-Ireland, Japanese cults, east Germany, anywhere. Fortunately most of them do not posses real money + smart strategy + strict organizational structure to reach their goals. Unfortunately Bin Laden has all of that.
In my opinion this is not a declaration of war, for there is no military follow up, there is no strategic military target hit, but most of all the act has a symbolic meaning, not a military one. This is large scale terrorism, the same stuff we have been seeing in Israel, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Turkey, etc.. but on a much larger scale.
Bin Laden used to be a big CIA buddy when he was fighting those scary Russians in 83 or 84 or something. The CIA recruted a lot of north-african muslim-looking men to help Bin Laden fight, the so-called Afghanis This group (a couple of thousand) are the real pissed-off people, they have the pure-hate + organization to do this kind of stuff. Most images you see of fundamental muslim countries in which large groups yell and burn US-flags are showing the absurd social control in these countries. It's got nothing to do with the Khoran, but with: 'Hey, this guy is not yelling Kill USA, he must be a thread to our system so let's chop his head off', that kinda gets you yelling that stuff.
People, there is nothing wrong with trying to understand this terrible thing, it don't mean you're saying that we got it coming. Although the CIA (+ clones) do not have a history of smart, insightfull action, and a response of their left-overs was predictable, this is beyond any scale.
BTW listen to what the Isreali have to say about preventing terrorism, even in this country with it's very strict safety measures people get through. There is nothing you can do against somebody who is willing to kill him/herself to get their point across.
What a mess
kiss